UEA Women’s Volleyball 10th best in the Country!

On the weekend of the 9^th/10^th February, UEA women’s volleyball took part in the Student Cup finals, a national indoor volleyball competition, hosted by UEA. This contest is run every year by Volleyball England to decide the best university volleyball teams in the country and UEA performed exceptionally well.

The first group stage on Saturday saw the women placed third in their pool after losing two games and winning one. The first game was against UCLU who they defeated in the qualifiers, but lost a close game 25-22 and 25-21 in the finals. They then played against Royal Holloway and won the games two sets to none, winning 25-11 and 25-13, guaranteeing a finish of at least twelfth in the competition. The final game of the group stage was played against the eventual winners of the Student Cup, Durham. The women lost 25-5 and 25-8 against an extremely strong team.

The group stages determined who placed in the top eight. The final game of the day was the first of the secondary group stage in which the women were playing for positions 9-12. The game was against Bournemouth who won 25-18 and 25-19. It was a close game, with Bournemouth just having the edge over their UEA counterparts.

volleyball UEA Women’s Volleyball officially 10th best in country!

On Sunday, the women only had two games to play, against Cardiff and Nottingham. For both games, the first set was taken from them meaning they had to win the second with a higher point difference than the first. Against Cardiff, the first set could have been anyone’s and ended 25-23 to the Welsh Ladies. This meant that UEA had to stop them scoring above 22 in the second set which they did very successfully, only allowing them to score 11 points, in a dominant game for UEA, with numerous high-pressure points. The final game for the girls was played against Nottingham with another close first set at 25-20, but again, the women brought it back winning the last set 25-10.

The results of the last two games meant UEA finished a very respectful tenth in the competition, placing higher than universities such as Nottingham and Warwick. This of course also means that UEA Women’s Volleyball are now officially placed tenth best in the country, a fantastic result for the team and our university! The whole team played outstandingly, in a competition at a level far superior to the one they are used to playing at in their BUCS league. The plan for next year’s Student Cup is to get both the men’s and women’s teams to the finals and another top finish-we look forward to more UEA success!

Big shout-out to all the girls who competed, Natalia de Martino, Masha Sillem, Sian Warren, Meg Warren, Rachel Wamboldt, Olga Michail, Jodie Craig, Hannah Montazeri , Chelbie Stephenson and Elizabeth Leddy-well done!

For the full overall standing and results go to-http://volleymedia.dyndns.org/docs/2013-14%20Student%20Cup%20Finals%20Results.pdf